


The Second Citadel: A Campaign

by smoothmovebro



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Dungeons and Dragons, Crossover, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-27 18:21:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17166989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smoothmovebro/pseuds/smoothmovebro
Summary: Juno has never played D&D. His friends plan to change that.





	The Second Citadel: A Campaign

**Author's Note:**

> written for The Penumbra Podcast Secrret Santa for Daisy

“No.”

“Yes.”

“ _ No! _ ”

“Yes! How many times do I have to tell you, Rita?”

Rita paces around their dorm room. She gesticulates as she processes what she just heard. “So… you’re telling me – your bestest friend in the whole world – that you’ve never played Dungeons and Dragons?!”

Juno shrugs. He flops down on his beanbag. “Look, I just never understood the hype. What’s with all the colourful dice with the weird shapes?”

Rita huffs. “ _ Those  _ are called d20’s! They determine whether it’s a critical hit or not!”

“See,  _ that’s  _ where I get confused! Critical hit, stats, classes, races. Ugh, why even bother?”

Rita lets her jaw drop at her roommate’s indifference. “Just you wait, Mistah Steel! I’ll show you the majesty of D&D and you’ll love it!” She scurries over to her side and starts rummaging through her drawers. Juno watches her and he shakes his head.

“Dungeons and Dragons, what a waste of time-”

The door bursts open. “Juno!”

Juno falls from his beanbag. The person in their doorway is Peter Nureyev, an underclassman with whom he has a… complicated relationship with. As always, he bursts in with the utmost finesse and grace, despite the urgency in his breath and the wildness in his eyes. He’s dressed only in a loose shirt and boxers, his heaving breaths showing off his collar bone. His glasses are glinting in the lighting of the room. It gives him this ominous look even though he is dishevelled. 

It’s… kind of sexy.

Wait… Nureyev is in their room, in his pyjamas, during holiday break. He should snap out of it; figure out what he wants.

“What’re you doing here, Nureyev?” Juno asks. He feels his voice cracking but uselessly hopes that Peter didn’t notice. He coughs to cover up the slip.

“Rita texted me.” Peter strides into the room so he’s in front of Juno. “What do you mean you haven’t played Dungeons and Dragons?”

Juno scrambles up from the floor and dusts himself off. “Look, I just don’t understand the hype, okay? It’s just a bunch of people rolling dice and saying weird words.”

Peter and Rita gasp. Juno swirls around to see Rita with a bundle of papers, some pencils, and a small drawstring bag. As Rita walks over to join Peter, she says, “Mistah  _ Steel _ ! The nerve!”

“What?” Juno replies defensively.

“Juno, D&D is more than just rolling dice and saying weird words! It’s a test of character, wit, and creativity! It’s an in _ cred _ ible manifestation of teamwork.” He gestures around the room like it’s some grand cause he’s advocating for.

“And what’re those for?” Juno asks, gesturing at the things Rita is holding.

“Oh!” Rita sits down on the floor and starts arranging the materials. “Well I thought, you know since you haven’t played before and all that-”

“That you’d have your first campaign tonight if you’ll have us?” Peter finishes.

Juno considers both of his… acquaintances. They’ve known each other for the better part of their time at Hyperion University, been through all kinds of crap together: that time with the Kanagawa family, that time they stole the famous Ruby 7, and let’s not forget the time it turned out Peter technically never existed because his so-called father wasn’t even his real father.

It’s some tough shit for a bunch of college kids to go through.

Despite their differences, they made a team that made it work. That’s what Juno admired about Rita and Peter: that they could add something to the group but also something else to balance them all out.

Finally, he sighs. “Fine.”

Rita squeals and Peter pumps his fist in the air; it’s a pretty unusual gesture from someone so composed most of the time.

Juno is already regretting it. “So what, how does it all work? Do we go straight into it or-?”

Peter laughs deep, mirthful, and genuine. “Juno, my darling, let’s take it slow,” he says with a double-edged tone. “D&D is a role-playing game, so each player has to come up with a character.”

“Oh, oh, oh!” Rita interjects. “We have to decide on a DM first! Is the three of us okay?”

“Of course! You’re right! How silly of me to forget…”

The girl is already tapping away on her phone. “I’m sending a text to everyone who can come over as a DM.”

“Guys,” Juno says, “do we really need to do all this-”

“Yes,” Peter and Rita reply at the same time.

“O-kay…”

With a final tap, Rita sends out the text. “Done!” Whoever replies while we’re making characters gets to join in or even be DM.”

“What’s a DM?” Juno asks. Usually, Juno likes asking questions, but he’s used to asking them to himself than to other people. It’s a feeling that crawls through his skin but makes his heart pick up pace. While he’s scowling on the outside for ending up like this, he’s hiding a genuine curiosity for this game his, dare he say it, friends are invested in. 

Peter leads Juno away from the beanbag to the middle of the room so they could join Rita on the floor. To illustrate, he takes one of Rita’s spare papers (templates of some kind) and starts writing down fantasy-looking words.

As he talks, Peter explains. “So you have your races – what kind of creature your character is – and classes. That’s your character’s vocation, what they do for a living. Their passion, even.”

Juno looks through the table that Peter wrote up. Knowing nothing and going in blind, he says, “So… I could be a tiefling bard?” he asks.

“Well, yes. But it’ll be  _ interesting _ , to say the least.”

There’s something about Nureyev’s face when he said that. Juno remembers that look. It was there when Juno first tried sushi and went for the green lump on the plate. It was there when Juno threw in a white shirt he needed for a job interview tomorrow with his dark clothes in the washing machine after using that shirt for a date. It was there then, it’s there now.

He’s about to do something stupid and Peter isn’t saying anything. The bastard, getting off on his blunders like that. And yet they’re here, letting himself be thrown through these motions because it’s Peter and he trusts him with his life, even though he doesn’t want to admit it.

“Rita!” he calls out.

Rita looks up from her phone. “Yeah, boss?”

“Don’t call me that- Rita, can a person create a character that’s a tiefling bard?”

Rita looks at Peter, then at Juno. “Well, I mean… you could? If you wanted to? You’ll just have to, like, really invest a lot in the bard side of things…”

Juno grunts in frustration. “What isn’t anyone telling me about this?”

“That’s ‘cuz a tiefling bard just ain’t like ya style, Jay!”

He swivels around to see the door opened again. “Mick?”

Mick swiggers into the room and plops himself on the floor with the three of them. “Bards are usually creative. The singing type, you know. And yeah, they’re witty but they gotta be charming too.”

Juno huffs. “Hey, I can be charming when I want to!”

“Juno, you really can’t. It’s adorable,” Peter says.

“Look, I’m just here to play a game of D&D. That’s it.”

“Aw, you can’t do that, buddy,” Mick says.

“Why not?”

“You play  _ campaigns,  _ not games. And campaigns can be broken up into sessions depending on how much time we spend moving through the story.”

Juno, who was listening to Mick with his jaw in his hand, loses balance and then flops to the floor again. Peter hides his mouth behind his hand and Rita looks the other way. Juno composes himself and breathes in deep.

“You’re telling me… that this could… possibly take ages?”

“Yes,” a voice responded.

The group turns around and finds Sasha Wire standing in their doorway, with two books in her arm. She walks into the room, pulls up a chair, and seats herself in front of the group. “Sessions, on average,” she begins, “take two hours. Most campaigns take approximately 24 hours of tabletop gameplay to reach completion. Therefore, when you do the math, you’ll need about twelve sessions to do one campaign. If we consider all our conflicting schedules and the academic calendar, it should take about…” she pauses. She stares out to the wall. “Six months to finish the campaign I set up.”

Through the room, an awed silence creeps in. Even Peter, the boy who could smooth talk his way through anything, is speechless. Mick smiles at Sasha, content to have more of his friends gathered in one place. Rita shrinks in on herself, so unused to having so many people from her roommate’s life in the same space. Juno is… surprised, among other things. 

Sasha crosses her legs and flicks a strand of hair behind her ear. “Any questions?”

“Yeah,” Juno says, “what the fuck?”

“An eloquent response as always, Juno,” Sasha replies.

“Six months?!” he continues. “What even  _ happens  _ in these campaigns?”

“Lotsa funny stuff!” Rita says. “One time, I was a human ranger and I stabbed myself in the hand on a knife but ended up killing a guy with one punch in the same hour.”

“I once rolled a critical hit to seduce an orc into saving my hometown,” Peter chimes in.

“Oh! And I was this tiny cleric who could carry a St. Bernard dog in my arms every time I rolled to do it!” Mick says.

Juno pinches the bridge of his nose. “Why did I agree to this-”

“Let’s start with setting up characters,” Sasha says. “But first, the stats.”

* * *

[excerpt from Sasha’s DM notes]

**The Second Citadel**

_ Game of Thrones-type universe but less death _

Players:

Juno as Sir Damien, a religious human knight with extreme anxiety and a way with words.

Mick as Sir Angelo, a human knight with the bravado of a college fratboy.

Rita as Sir Caroline, a human knight with the best skills in the kingdom and a secret past.

Peter as Lord Arum, a dragon-born warlock who lived contently in solitude until the

* * *

[excerpt from Rita’s scribbles on the margins of her character template]

 

“A LIZAAAARRRRDDD!”

is boss a scalie?

hell yeah gay knights!

tfw you're trying to hide the fact that you're just bees in a trench coat

* * *

[from Juno's character sheet]

 

those eyes...

**Author's Note:**

> i may or may not expand on this


End file.
